Lakeville Father Defends Abandoning Son, Says 'Plan Was Right'

The Lakeville father accused of abandoning his 11-year-old son in July and taking off for California told a KSTP News this week that he doesn’t regret what he did.

Steven Alexander Cross, 60, remained in a California jail cell Thursday, on a charge of child neglect.

As first reported by Lakeville Patch, Police say he left two notes—one for his 11 year old son, and one for a neighbor—and fled his Lakeville home in mid-July.

In one note, Cross apologized to the boy, told him that he couldn’t find work as an architect and the sheriff would be taking their foreclosed home, and that he should take his PlayStation and go to a neighbor’s home.

The other note asked neighbor Joanne Pahl to assume guardianship for the boy, who has been in foster care for a month and will soon be placed permanently with a relative, according to the Dakota County attorney’s office.

Cross was arrested last week in California and waived extradition to Minnesota. He is scheduled to appear in a California courtroom Sept. 14.

He told KSTP-TV Wednesday via telephone that there are “things you cannot fix” and that he sent Sebastian to the Pahls’ house because he thought they could “find someone for him” in their church group rather than having the boy end up in the social services system.

“He means everything to me,” Cross told KSTP.

He also said that despite the nationwide furor and outrage over his disappearance, he wouldn’t do anything differently if he had the chance. “I still think my plan was right,” he said.